Ag Leadership Under Biden Becomes Clearer

In the month since the presidential election was called, there’s been widespread speculation in agricultural circles about who President-elect Joe Biden might nominate to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Several names were floated, but it was unclear who the frontrunner could be until earlier this week.

On Tuesday night past, several major media outlets reported that Biden intends to ask Tom Vilsack to return to his previous post of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, which he held for eight years under President Barack Obama. A former governor of Iowa, Vilsack has been serving as president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council for the last four years.

With such extensive knowledge of USDA and agricultural issues, Vilsack certainly “has the necessary qualifications and experience to steer the agency,” National Farmers Union (NFU) President Rob Larew said in a statement. However, the road ahead isn’t easy; the agency has some exceptionally complex issues to resolve. In particular, Larew urged Vilsack to “implement and enforce rules that protect farmers from anticompetitive practices, enact meaningful structural reforms that balance supply with demand, restore competition to agricultural markets, strengthen local and regional food systems, advance racial equity in agriculture, and mitigate the threat of climate change.” More immediately, Larew stated that the agency must “expand nutrition assistance programs in order to ensure that millions of individuals who are facing unemployment and food insecurity are able to meet their most basic needs through the pandemic.”

But the Secretary fo Agriculture isn’t the only position critical to shaping food and farm policy in the years to come; chairs of the Congressional Agriculture Committees will also play an important role. Late last week, Georgia Representative David Scott was selected by his fellow House Democrats to lead the House Agriculture Committee as its next chairman, while Pennsylvania Representative Glenn Thompson was elected to serve as the ranking Republican member of the committee.

Larew congratulated Scott and Thompson in a statement, saying that they “not only . . . have strong backgrounds in agricultural policy, but they both understand the importance of bringing together a broad coalition to support the food system.” He indicated that he looked forward to “working with them to develop policies that support family farmers, ensure food security, and bolster rural communities.”